So here is what happens. I downloaded the 32bit iso file, checked its md5sum and burned the iso to a DVD at its slowest setting. Mint13 live loads and all seems well and good. I click "install mint" and the installation window opens. I enter my time zone, my keyboard type, and my user name and password. Then, while the system is installing the operating system, a "slideshow" starts to tell me about Linux Minx, but, when the second slide starts, the installation screen goes away and I'm left at the desktop and the mint version of the hourglass. I left it like this for a few hours with no progress. When I reboot the computer I'm presented with a black screen and a flashing line at the top left corner. I burned a new iso with the same results. I also tried booting to a USB, but it wouldn't go, the bios may be too old for that. I did check the eMachines website and they don't have any bios available to download for this desktop.

Matt

Last edited by Matt267 on Fri May 25, 2012 8:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.

You are not alone. I too have the same problem. I have successfully downloaded, burned and installed mint 12/debian on a test machine and tried the same with maya, mate edition. It does the same thing and hangs up during install. I originally thought it was related to my "home built" but soon squashed that when I tried it on a newer dell I have sitting around. I'm running an ATI 9200 card with an amd 1.8g processor and 1 gig of ram. It was good enough for the mint 12/debian install but is a no go for 13. I'm thinking a command line adjustment needs to be made before the install process begins but as of yet I have not found an area to make the adjustment. I suspect the installer may be at fault. So the question is, how to fix that?

Nor I on the flash boot. The only access I have is via the dvd. From reading other similar posts this install failure is a wide spread problem. Historically mint has had problems with the install program. I have run into this before and because of that kept using ubuntu. The question is, if LMDE/12 installs ok what's the problem with the standard version? As always I try and wait it out and see if or when an update is available correcting the problem. I've read postings of failures from usb boots, external drive boots, redownload and burn from different mirrors all to no avail. This is not a hardware problem but one that apprears to be program related.

There are 2 corrupt files in the new iso. You can't copy them, modify them or look at them. I keep getting input/output error messages on each. The first one is the mint4win.exe file and the other is in the installer [imagine that]. That one is sbm.bin. Neither can be copied or viewed as I was trying to piece together a cd . I don't know if this has anything to do with the problems being discussed here but something isn't right in the files. I can't even view them using midnight commander. They appear to just be broken.

That is interesting. I do know that mint4win doesn't work for the 32bit systems.I was going to try and download and install the no-codecs version to see if that made a difference. I'm hoping this topic gets the attention of a developer. Or, perhaps a bug report should be made?

I just tried installing Xubuntu 12.04 and experienced the same failure during the installation "slideshow." I also tried Mint13 on a home built machine I have and it too failed. I wounder if there is a bug in the 12.04 ubuntu installer. I'm installing WattOS R5 which, like Mint12, is based on Ubuntu 11.10 and it installed. I'm going to hunt the Internet for bug reports related to the 12.04 installer. Between me and you, we have 4 machines fail to install Mint13, I'm assuming there are others too.

No matter how you look at it, broken is still broken and will remain so until coders can fix the issues. I installed mint 12/debian 4 different times on various machines all without incident. I am working on a networking issue that appears to be elusive and inconsistent. This has been an ongoing problem with mint for several releases and the reason I have not been using it until lmde12 came along. Hopefully someone with influence will read these posts and address the problem but I seriously doubt it. If they cared that much they'd fix the samba networking problems that have been plaguing the system for 4 releases now.

I removed "ubiquity-slideshow-mint" from the software manager while running from the liveDVD. I clicked "install mint" and the installer started but the slideshow did not. The installer completed and installed mint 13. I'm going to mark this as "solved," hopefully this works for others.

Matt, you're my hero. Thanks for finding the solution. I was getting the installation hang installing 32 bit Cinnamon from both DVD and USB. Removing the slideshow relieved my frustration. Will be playing with the new Mint for a few weeks before upgrading my server. Thanks.

I had the same issue over the weekend and independently came to the successful workaround of removing the slideshow before installing. I wanted to thank your for your post and confirm that what you have documented here worked for me as well.

I guess I"m one of the unlucky ones, in that I have the exact same symptoms during the installation process, but the recommended fix didn't work for me. It still froze during the install (installing on a IBM T43). I wish LM had an alternate installer like how Ubuntu has - I suspect I might have more luck with that given that it's a 6 year old laptop. Oh well. Will keep investigating.

Thanks Matt, this worked for me with one error. Then typing "sudo dpkg --configure -a" in terminal fixed the error. I included the error fix cause I originally missed the double dashes before configure (--configure).

Wound up booting from USB drive and I was able to successfully complete the install. Just wanted to offer this solution for those who encountered the same issue as the OP and removing the slideshow did not work.

Thanks to the information here, Mint 13 finally installed without the slide show killing the install process. How come this problem has not been corrected in the live-CD iso images? Many people will not have the patience to go hunting for the solution. First impressions are everything to get new people to use Linux and situations like this will just turn people away. So the pretty and polish of the slide show is not there but at least it works. Personally I would sacrifice pretty for functionality.